Home Programming GeoServer Cookbook

GeoServer Cookbook

By Stefano Iacovella
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  1. Free Chapter
    Working with Vectors
About this book
Publication date:
November 2014
Publisher
Packt
Pages
280
ISBN
9781783289615

 

Chapter 1. Working with Vectors

In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

  • Using different WFS versions in OpenLayers

  • Using WFS nonspatial filters

  • Using WFS spatial filters

  • Using WFS vendor parameters

  • Filtering data with CQL

  • Filtering data with CQL spatial operators

  • Creating a SQL view

  • Creating a parametric view

  • Improving performance with pregeneralized features

 

Introduction


Vector data is probably the main source of spatial information that is used inside GeoServer to build maps. You may use the data both to render maps on the server side, that is, using the Web Map Service (WMS) standard, or have the client get the shapes and manipulate or render them in a map, that is, using the Web Feature Service (WFS) standard.

In this chapter, we will use both these standards, and we will focus on how to filter data and optimize configuration for better performance. We assume that you're already comfortable with the standard WMS and WFS requests and you know how to configure a data store and a layer with the GeoServer web interface.

The recipes in this chapter use a few datasets. Configuring and publishing them is quite easy, so we are not covering these steps in detail. We will use publicly available data from NASA Earth Observatory (http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov) and Natural Earth (http://www.naturalearthdata.com). Configuration and publication of datasets is straightforward, and hence not covered in detail.

You should download the Blue Marble dataset from NASA Earth Observatory. In the home page, you can find it by navigating to the LAND section. Use the GeoTiff format with 0.1 degrees resolution to match the exercises provided in this book. You should publish this dataset as NaturalEarth:blueMarble for use with exercises that require a map that looks like the one in this book.

You also need a couple of datasets from Natural Earth: the datasets for countries and populated places in the 1:10,000,000 scale. Go to http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/ and download the datasets for countries and populated places in the shapefile format. Publish the countries' data as NaturalEarth:countries.

We will be using the populated places dataset to create a SQL view. To be able to create it, you should load the data in a spatial RDBMS. Our choice is PostGIS, as it is a very good option; it is powerful, easy to deploy, and free.

Tip

We won't cover how to install and configure a PostGIS installation. In fact, PostGIS is not an RDBMS, but a spatial plugin for PostgreSQL. So, you should first install the latter and then add the former. If this sounds new and somehow complicated for you, there are a lot of nice guides on the Internet that you can use for a quick start.

The procedure to install on Linux can be found at:

http://trac.osgeo.org/postgis/wiki/UsersWikiInstall

For Windows, a good choice is downloading the binary packaged by Enterprise DB:

http://www.enterprisedb.com/products-services-training/pgdownload#windows

 

Using different WFS versions in OpenLayers


You are probably comfortable with WMS and including WMS layers in a web application. When you need more control over your data, it's time to switch to WFS.

Unlike WMS, a WFS request brings you the actual raw data in the form of features. By working with the features directly, you are no more dealing with a static rendering of features, that is, a map; you can take fine control of the shapes by setting drawing rules on the client side.

WFS comes in several different flavors or, more precisely, in different protocol versions. GeoServer supports 1.0.0, 1.1.0, and 2.0.0. Each version differs in the formats supported and the query capabilities supported. For example, WFS 2.0.0 supports the use of temporal queries and joins.

Note

If you are curious about the details of WFS and GML, check out the reference documents for WFS and GML in the OGC repository at http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/is. Here, look for the following files:

  • OpenGIS® Geography Markup Language Encoding Standard (GML)

  • OpenGIS® Web Feature Service (WFS) Implementation Specification

The following screenshot shows the map you're aiming for:

Tip

We will build the code step by step. For your reference, check out the code bundle provided with the book and have a look at the ch01_wfsVersion.html and ch01_wfsVersion101.html files.

How to do it…

  1. Create an HTML file and insert the following code snippet:

    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Dealing with WFS version</title>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <body onload="init()">
        <div id="myMap"></div>
      </body>
    </html>

    Tip

    Downloading the example code

    You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

  2. Create a style for the map, defining the size and aspect:

        <style type="text/css">
          #myMap {
            clear: both;
            position: relative;
            width: 750px;
            height: 450px;
            border: 1px solid black;
          }
        </style>
  3. Insert a reference to the OpenLayers library:

        <script type="text/javascript" src="http://openlayers.org/api/2.13.1/OpenLayers.js"></script>
  4. Now start coding in JavaScript and add new map objects:

        <script type="text/javascript">
          function init() {
            map = new OpenLayers.Map({
              div: "myMap",
              //We don't want any layers as base map
              allOverlays: true,
  5. Add the Blue Marble layer, which is a standard WMS layer:

              layers: [
                new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("Blue Marble",
                  "http://localhost/geoserver/wms",
                  {layers: "NaturalEarth:blueMarble", format: "image/png", transparent: false}
                ),
  6. Now, add a vector layer using the WFS protocol:

                new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("countries", {
                  strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.BBOX()],
                  protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({
                    url: "http://localhost/geoserver/wfs",
                    featureType: "countries",
                    featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                    // Mind the geometry column name
                    geometryName: "geom"
                  }),
  7. Insert a style to render the vector features:

                  styleMap: new OpenLayers.StyleMap({
                    strokeWidth: 3,
                    strokeColor: "#FF0000",
                    strokeWidth: 1,
                    fillColor: "#ee9900",
                    fillOpacity: 0.3
                  }),
                })
              ],
  8. Zoom in to the map and center it on Europe:

              center: [12.48, 42.60],
              zoom: 4
            });
            map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.LayerSwitcher());
          }
        </script>
      </head>
  9. Save the file in a folder published on your server, such as TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ROOT, and point your browser to it. You should get a map that looks like the one shown in the introduction to this recipe.

  10. Now, switch the request to another version. We will use v1.1.0 and the JSON format:

                new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("countries", {
                  strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.BBOX()],
                  protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS.v1_1_0({
                    url: "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wfs",
                    featureType: "countries",
                    featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                    geometryName: "geom",
                    outputFormat: "JSON",
                }),
  11. Reload your document inside the browser and check that your map looks the same.

How it works…

We are using a JavaScript application to perform a WFS query on GeoServer. This is a common use case in the era of web mapping, besides using the OpenLayers framework to assist you in building a complicated request.

The HTML and CSS part of the script is quite easy. As you must have noticed, the core of this little program is the init() function, which is called at page loading.

We first create a map object and set the allOverlays variable to true. The default value of false makes it mandatory for a layer to be basemap; in this recipe, we don't want to have basemap, which is a layer that is always turned on in the map:

          allOverlays: true,

Then, we start to add data on the map. First, we use the raster data from the NASA Blue Marble dataset. We use the OpenLayers.Layer.WMS class; you just need to set a name and URL for the WMS service. The format and transparent parameters are optional, but they let you control the file produced by GeoServer. The code is as follows:

          layers: [
            new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("Blue Marble",
              "http://localhost/geoserver/wms",
              {layers: "NaturalEarth:blueMarble", format: "image/png", transparent: false}
            ),

Note

While we are using a raster dataset in this request, you can, of course, use vector data in the WMS request

Then we create a new layer using the OpenLayers.Layer.Vector class, and this layer can use a different source data format:

            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("countries", {

We add a strategy, BBOX, to let OpenLayers query the server for data intersecting the current map extent:

              strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.BBOX()],

With the protocol parameter, we set the data format. Of course, we use WFS, and this class defaults to the 1.0.0 version of the standard:

              protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({

We need to set some mandatory parameters when invoking the constructor for the WFS class. The geometryName parameter is optional, but it defaults to the_geom value. So, you need to set it to the actual name of the geometry column in your data. The code is as follows:

                url: "http://localhost/geoserver/wfs",
                featureType: "countries",
                featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                geometryName: "geom"

WFS returns raw data, not an image map like WMS. So, you need to draw each feature yourself; you have to set some rules for feature drawing. Inside the StyleMap class, you set the color, line width, and other rendering parameters that will be used to represent features in the map, as shown in the following code:

              styleMap: new OpenLayers.StyleMap({
                strokeWidth: 3,
                strokeColor: "#FF0000",
                strokeWidth: 1,
                fillColor: "#ee9900",
                fillOpacity: 0.3

What happens when you load this app in your browser? You can use a browser extension to check the actual request sent to GeoServer.

Note

Firebug is a powerful extension for FireFox, and with Chrome, you can use the developer console.

Using FireFox with Firebug, you should see a few requests upon loading the ch01_wfsVersion.html file. OpenLayers executes the POST WFS request with our parameters; you can see that the version is 1.0.0, the operation is GetFeature, and there is a bounding box filter defined in GML 2:

Now, try to load the ch01_wfsVersion110.html file; the request is a little bit different. Of course, now the version is 1.1.0, but the filter looks different as well:

<ogc:Filter xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc">
  <ogc:BBOX>
    <ogc:PropertyName>geom</ogc:PropertyName>
    <gml:Envelope xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml" srsName="EPSG:4326">
      <gml:lowerCorner>-53.43796875 3.04921875</gml:lowerCorner>
      <gml:upperCorner>78.39796875 82.15078125</gml:upperCorner>
    </gml:Envelope>
  </ogc:BBOX>
</ogc:Filter>

You need to be aware that WFS 1.1.0 uses GML 3, which uses a different representation of geometry. In this case, OpenLayers hides the complexity of creating the correct geometry filter.

There's more…

You probably noted when downloading the Blue Marble dataset that the GeoTIFF file is quite a big file. To render this file, GeoServer must navigate the file contents and read blocks of pixels off the disk. To optimize data storage and enhance rendering speed, you can use GDAL tools to restructure the contents of the file for faster access.

If you have GDAL tools at your fingertips, you can check the metadata of the file:

:$ gdalinfo BlueMarbleNG-TB_2004-12-01_rgb_3600x1800.TIFF

Metadata:
  AREA_OR_POINT=Area
  TIFFTAG_RESOLUTIONUNIT=1 (unitless)
  TIFFTAG_XRESOLUTION=1
  TIFFTAG_YRESOLUTION=1
Image Structure Metadata:
  INTERLEAVE=PIXEL

Now, let's transform the file using a compression method to reduce the file size and tile the dataset for faster access:

:$ gdal_translate -of GTiff -co COMPRESS=DEFLATE -co TILED=YES BlueMarbleNG-TB_2004-12-01_rgb_3600x1800.TIFF blueMarble.tiff

Tiling organizes the file contents on disk into tiles, ideally locating blocks of pixels next to each other on disk. This optimization helps in performance when GeoServer is zoomed in to a small area of interest.

Then, we will add an overview to further hasten the data extraction:

:$ gdaladdo -r cubic -ro blueMarble.tiff 2 4 8 16 32 64

An overview creates a small summary image, which can be used by GeoServer when zoomed out. By drawing using the overview, GeoServer can read fewer pixels off disk and avoid having to sample through the entire file.

By executing the gdalinfo tool again, you can check that these have actually been applied successfully:


Metadata:
  AREA_OR_POINT=Area
  TIFFTAG_RESOLUTIONUNIT=1 (unitless)
  TIFFTAG_XRESOLUTION=1
  TIFFTAG_YRESOLUTION=1
Image Structure Metadata:
  COMPRESSION=DEFLATE
  INTERLEAVE=PIXEL

Band 1 Block=256x256 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Red
  Overviews: 1800x900, 900x450, 450x225, 225x113, 113x57, 57x29
Band 2 Block=256x256 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Green
  Overviews: 1800x900, 900x450, 450x225, 225x113, 113x57, 57x29
Band 3 Block=256x256 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Blue
  Overviews: 1800x900, 900x450, 450x225, 225x113, 113x57, 57x29
 

Using WFS nonspatial filters


In the previous recipe, we just specified a layer to get features from. The OpenLayers strategy, BBOX, created a spatial filter to get only features intersecting the map extent. For common use, you may want to create filters yourself in order to extract specific sets of features from GeoServer.

In this recipe, we will build a map with four layers, each one containing countries according to their mean income. The data source for each layer is the countries' feature type, and we will apply different filters on them.

The resulting map looks like this:

Tip

You can find the full source code for this recipe in the ch01_wfsFilter.html file.

How to do it…

  1. Use the ch01_wfsVersion.html file of the previous recipe; rename it as wfsFilter.html in the same folder. Then, edit the JavaScript part as shown in the following code:

    <script type="text/javascript">
      function init() {
        map = new OpenLayers.Map({
          div: "myMap",
          allOverlays: true,
  2. Remove the Blue Marble layer; we will have only WFS layers here:

          layers: [
            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Low income Countries", {
              strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.BBOX()],
              protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({
                url: "http://localhost/geoserver/wfs",
                featureType: "countries",
                featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                geometryName: "geom"
              }),
  3. Change the style for the first request; the features will be drawn with a pale brown fill and a dark outline:

              styleMap: new OpenLayers.StyleMap({
                strokeWidth: 3,
                strokeColor: "#000000",
                strokeWidth: 1,
                fillColor: "#ffffcc",
                fillOpacity: 1
              }),
  4. Now, add a filter to only have low income countries in this layer:

              filter: new OpenLayers.Filter.Logical({
                type: OpenLayers.Filter.Logical.AND,
                filters: [
                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,
                    property: "income_grp",
                    value: "5. Low income"
                  }),
                ]
              })
            }),
  5. We will repeat the previous steps for three other layers. Name the first as Lower middle income Countries:

            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Lower middle income Countries", {
  6. The source of the layer is obviously the same; change the style with a fill as shown in the following line of code:

                fillColor: "#c2e699",
  7. Then, change the filter to extract countries with a proper value:

                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,
                    property: "income_grp",
                    value: "4. Lower middle income"
                  }),
  8. Now, add a new layer for the upper-middle income countries; the only modified line of code is shown here:

            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Upper middle income Countries", {
    …
                fillColor: "#78c679",
    …
                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,
                    property: "income_grp",
                    value: "3. Upper middle income"
                  }),
  9. Eventually, add a last layer for high income countries:

            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("High income Countries", {
    …
                fillColor: "#238443",
  10. The Filter is a bit more complex as we have two different values for high income countries:

              filter: new OpenLayers.Filter.Logical({
                type: OpenLayers.Filter.Logical.OR,
                filters: [
                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,
                    property: "income_grp",
                    value: " 1. High income: OECD"
                  }),
                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,
                    property: "income_grp",
                    value: " 2. High income: nonOECD"
                  })
                ]
              })
  11. Save the file and point your browser to it. You should get a map that looks like the one shown in the introduction to this recipe.

How it works…

The first part of the script is quite similar to that used in the previous recipe. We create a Map object and start adding layers to it.

To have the first layer containing only low income countries, we need to set a filter:

filter: new OpenLayers.Filter.Logical({

The filter might contain more criteria, so we need to specify a logical operator to join more criteria. This is required only with a single-criteria filter, as shown in the following code:

  type: OpenLayers.Filter.Logical.AND,

Then, we set the filter type. In this case, an equality type, that is, only records with the value we specify, will be selected:

  filters: [
    new OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison({
      type: OpenLayers.Filter.Comparison.EQUAL_TO,

Eventually, we need to set the attributes on which the filter will be applied and the value to use for filtering records:

      property: "income_grp",
      value: "5. Low income"
    }),
  ]
})

To create the other three layers, we clone the same filter by setting a different value. We create four different layers from the same feature type.

Of course, we need to set a different style for each layer to have a proper distinct representation.

 

Using WFS spatial filters


Filtering alphanumerical attributes is quite a common task. However, in a GIS application, you may also want to filter features according to geometric properties.

WFS includes a few spatial relationships that you can use to create a spatial filter. From a general point of view, you need an input shape, a relationship to be checked, and some target shapes to be filtered.

In this recipe, we use the DWITHIN spatial relationship to filter countries that are within a circular buffer.

Tip

You can find the full source code for this recipe in the code bundle available from the Packt site for this book. Look for the ch01_wfsSpatialFilter.html file.

How to do it…

  1. Copy the file used in the first recipe to the wfsSpatialFilter.html file in the same folder. Then, alter the JavaScript part as shown in the following code:

    <script type="text/javascript">
      function init() {
        map = new OpenLayers.Map({
          div: "myMap",
          allOverlays: true,
          layers: [
            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Filtered Countries", {
              strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.Fixed()],
              protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({
                url: "http://localhost/geoserver/wfs",
                featureType: "countries",
                featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                geometryName: "geom"
              }),
              styleMap: new OpenLayers.StyleMap({
                strokeWidth: 3,
                strokeColor: "#000000",
                strokeWidth: 1,
                fillColor: "#78c679",
                fillOpacity: 1
              }),
  2. Insert a spatial filter, as shown in the following code:

              filter: new OpenLayers.Filter.Logical({
                type: OpenLayers.Filter.Logical.AND,
                filters: [
                  new OpenLayers.Filter.Spatial({
                    type: OpenLayers.Filter.Spatial.DWITHIN,
                    value: new OpenLayers.Geometry.Point(12, 42),
                    distance: 8
                  })
                ]
              })
            })
          ],
          center: [12.48, 42.60],
          zoom: 4
        });
        map.addControl(new OpenLayers.Control.LayerSwitcher());
      }
    </script>
  3. Save the file and point your browser to it. You should get a map that looks like the one shown in the introduction to this recipe.

How it works…

Not surprisingly, the code contained in the file is not so different from that used in the previous recipe. Indeed, we are performing the same task, which is filtering data, but now we want to use a different filter: a spatial filter.

You set a logical filter with an AND logical join:

          filter: new OpenLayers.Filter.Logical({
            type: OpenLayers.Filter.Logical.AND,

Then, you add a Filter.Spatial class. This is the magic of this recipe. The value parameter lets you choose the spatial relationship; in this case, we use DWITHIN, that is, all features within a specific distance from the source geometry will be selected:

            filters: [
              new OpenLayers.Filter.Spatial({
                type: OpenLayers.Filter.Spatial.DWITHIN,

The source geometry is a point feature created with an OpenLayers class and specifies the latitude and longitude values:

                value: new OpenLayers.Geometry.Point(12, 42),

Then, you have to set a distance. Please note that you can also set zero as a distance value; in this case, if you have a polygon geometry, only the feature that is contained in the polygon will be selected:

                distance: 8
              })
            ]
          })

Note

GeoServer lets you use a few spatial filters: Disjoint, Equals, DWithin, Beyond, Intersect, Touches, Crosses, Within, Contains, Overlaps, and BBOX. For more details about them, point to http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/filter.

 

Using WFS vendor parameters


The previous recipes used standard WFS requests. GeoServer also supports a few optional parameters that you can include in your requests. In this recipe, we will see how to ask GeoServer, which is reprojecting the data from the native SRS to another SRS, to use a vendor parameter.

Reprojection of data is a part of WFS 1.1.0 and 2.0.0, and GeoServer has provided support since 1.0.0 so that you can use it with any WFS version. The following screenshot is what we're targeting in this recipe:

Tip

You can find the full source code for this recipe in the code bundle available from the Packt site for this book; look for the ch01_wfsReprojection.html file.

How to do it…

  1. Copy the file used in the first recipe to the wfsReprojection.html file in the same folder. Insert a new parameter for the Map object:

          projection: "EPSG:3857",
  2. Then, alter the JavaScript part when creating the WFS layer:

            new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("countries", {
              strategies: [new OpenLayers.Strategy.BBOX()],
              protocol: new OpenLayers.Protocol.WFS({
                url: "http://localhost/geoserver/wfs",
                featureType: "countries",
                featureNS: "http://www.naturalearthdata.com/",
                geometryName: "geom",
  3. Add a parameter to request data reprojection:

              srsName: new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:3857"),
              srsNameInQuery: true
            }),
  4. Save the file and point your browser to it. You should get a map that looks like the one shown in the introduction to this recipe.

How it works…

Using a vendor parameter is really straightforward; you just add it to your request. In our recipe, we want to use the countries' data that is stored in the EPSG:4326 projection, which is the geographical coordinates, and in EPSG:3857, which is the planar coordinates. First of all, we set the spatial reference system for the map:

  map = new OpenLayers.Map({
    div: "myMap",
    allOverlays: true,
    projection: "EPSG:3857",

Then, we create the WFS request for data by inserting the srsName parameter and assigning it the same projected coordinate system used for the map. The Boolean parameter srsNameInQuery is really important, as it defaults to false. If you don't set it, OpenLayers will not ask for reprojection when using WFS 1.0.0:

            srsName: new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:3857"),
            srsNameInQuery: true

Let's see what happens when you load the page in your browser and the OpenLayers framework creates the WFS request. Use Firebug to capture the XML code sent to GeoServer with the GetFeature request. The Query element contains the srsName parameter that forces GeoServer to project data:

<wfs:Query typeName="feature:countries_1" srsName="EPSG:3857" xmlns:feature="http://www.naturalearthdata.com/">
  <ogc:Filter xmlns:ogc="http://www.opengis.net/ogc">
    <ogc:BBOX>
      <ogc:PropertyName>geom</ogc:PropertyName>
      <gml:Box xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml" srsName="EPSG:3857">
        <gml:coordinates decimal="." cs="," ts=" ">-13325909.428711,-3545545.6572266 16025909.428711,14065545.657227</gml:coordinates>
      </gml:Box>
    </ogc:BBOX>
  </ogc:Filter>
</wfs:Query>
 

Filtering data with CQL


Another vendor parameter is cql_filter. It allows users to add filters to requests using Extended Common Query Language (ECQL).

In the previous recipes, you created filters using the OGC filter XML standard. ECQL lets you create filters in an easier text format and in a much more compact way. A CQL filter is a list of phrases similar to the where clauses in SQL, each separated by the combiner words AND or OR.

Note

CQL was originally used for catalog systems. GeoServer uses an extension for CQL, allowing the full representation of OGC filters in the text form. This extension is called ECQL.

ECQL lets you use several operators and functions. For more information, you can read the documents available at the following URLs:

In this recipe, we will create a map with a filter on income_grp, which is very similar to the previous one. Your result should look like the following screenshot:

Tip

You can find the full source code for this recipe in the ch01_wmsCQLFilter.html file.

How to do it…

  1. Copy the file used in the first recipe to a new file and name it wfsCQLFilter.html in the same folder. Insert a new sld variable and populate it as shown in the following lines:

      <script type="text/javascript" src="http://openlayers.org/api/2.13.1/OpenLayers.js"></script>
      <script type="text/javascript">
        function init() {
          var sld = '<StyledLayerDescriptor version="1.0.0">';
          sld+= '<NamedLayer>';
          sld+= '<Name>NaturalEarth:countries</Name>';
          sld+= '<UserStyle>';
          sld+= '<IsDefault>1</IsDefault>';
          sld+= '<FeatureTypeStyle>';
          sld+= '<Rule>';
          sld+= '<PolygonSymbolizer>';
          sld+= '<Stroke>';
          sld+= '<CssParameter name="stroke">#000000</CssParameter>';
          sld+= '<CssParameter name="stroke-width">1</CssParameter>';
          sld+= '</Stroke>';
          sld+= '<Fill>';
          sld+= '<CssParameter name="fill">#FFFFCC</CssParameter>';
          sld+= '<CssParameter name="fill-opacity">0.65</CssParameter>';
          sld+= '</Fill>';
          sld+= '</PolygonSymbolizer>';
          sld+= '</Rule>';
          sld+= '</FeatureTypeStyle>';
          sld+= '</UserStyle>';
          sld+= '</NamedLayer>';
          sld+= '</StyledLayerDescriptor>';
  2. After the Blue Marble layer, add a new WMS layer:

          new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("countries",
            "http://localhost/geoserver/wms",{
              layers: "NaturalEarth:countries",
              format: "image/png",
              transparent: true,
              CQL_FILTER: "income_grp = '1. High income: OECD' OR income_grp ='2. High income: nonOECD'",
              sld_body: sld
              })
  3. Save the file and point your browser to it. You should get a map that looks like the one shown in the introduction to this recipe.

How it works…

As with the vendor parameter for reprojection, the use of CQL filters is really easy. You can add one when you create the Layer object and insert the textual representation of the filter, that is, a string. In this filter, we want to select high income countries; two different values match the condition, so we use the logical operator OR to join them:

CQL_FILTER: "income_grp = '1. High income: OECD' OR income_grp ='2. High income: nonOECD'",

Then, we add an sld_body parameter and assign the content of the variable sld to it. This is not a filter requirement; we just want to override the default style for the countries' layers, so we use the WMS option to send a Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD) description of drawing rules to GeoServer:

sld_body: sld

Of course, we need to create an actual SLD document and insert it into the sld variable before creating the countries layer. We do this by adding a well-formed XML code line by line to the sld variable. You will note that we're creating exactly the same symbology used in the Using WFS spatial filters recipe:

var sld = '<StyledLayerDescriptor version="1.0.0">';
…
sld+= '<PolygonSymbolizer>';
sld+= '<Stroke>';
sld+= '<CssParameter name="stroke">#000000</CssParameter>';
sld+= '<CssParameter name="stroke-width">1</CssParameter>';
sld+= '</Stroke>';
sld+= '<Fill>';
sld+= '<CssParameter name="fill">#FFFFCC</CssParameter>';
sld+= '<CssParameter name="fill-opacity">0.65</CssParameter>';
sld+= '</Fill>';
sld+= '</PolygonSymbolizer>';
…

This is just a small peek at SLD. If you are curious about the standard, you can find the official papers for SLD at http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=22364 and the XSD schemas at http://schemas.opengis.net/sld/.

 

Filtering data with CQL spatial operators


ECQL does not only let you create readable and powerful filters on feature attributes; obviously, it also lets you filter out geometric properties.

There are a few spatial operators that you can use in a CQL filter: EQUALS, DISJOINT, INTERSECTS, TOUCHES, CROSSES, WITHIN, CONTAINS, OVERLAPS, RELATE, DWITHIN, and BEYOND. With all these operators at your fingertips, you can really build complex filters.

In this recipe, we will use the BEYOND operator that is the inverse of DWITHIN, which we used in the recipe Using WFS spatial filters. With the filter, we will select the populated places located at least 1,000 km away from Rome, Italy. The result is shown in the following screenshot:

Tip

You can find the full source code for this recipe in the ch01_wmsCQLSpatialFilter.html file.

How to do it…

  1. Create a projected table with populated places in PostGIS:

    gisdata=> CREATE TABLE populatedplaceswm AS SELECT name, ST_Transform(geom,3857) AS geom FROM populatedplaces;
    gisdata=> CREATE INDEX populatedplaceswm_0_geom_gist ON populatedplaceswm USING gist(geom);
    
  2. Have a look at the latitude and longitude values for Rome using the following lines of code:

    gisdata=> select ST_AsText(geom) from populatedplaces where name = 'Rome';
    -----------------------------------------
     POINT(12.481312562874 41.8979014850989)
    
  3. Copy wmsCQLFilter.html to wmsCQLSpatialFilter.html and edit the JavaScript code. Change sld to PointSymbolizer with a red fill for points outside the buffer:

    sld+= '<PointSymbolizer>';
    sld+= '<Graphic>';
    sld+= '<Mark>';
    sld+= '<WellKnownName>circle</WellKnownName>';
    sld+= '<Fill>';
    sld+= '<CssParameter name="fill">#FF0000</CssParameter>';
    sld+= '</Fill>';
    sld+= '</Mark>';
    sld+= '<Size>3</Size>';
    sld+= '</Graphic>';
    sld+= '</PointSymbolizer>';
  4. Add an sld2 variable that holds drawing rules for points contained in the buffer area. You can reuse the code for the sld variable, changing the fill color to green:

    sld2+= '<PointSymbolizer>';
    sld2+= '<Graphic>';
    sld2+= '<Mark>';
    sld2+= '<WellKnownName>circle</WellKnownName>';
    sld2+= '<Fill>';
    sld2+= '<CssParameter name="fill">#00FF00</CssParameter>';
    sld2+= '</Fill>';
    sld2+= '</Mark>';
    sld2+= '<Size>3</Size>';
    sld2+= '</Graphic>';
    sld2+= '</PointSymbolizer>';
  5. Set the SRS for the map to EPSG:3857:

    map = new OpenLayers.Map({
      div: "myMap",
      allOverlays: true,
      projection: "EPSG:3857",
      maxExtent: new OpenLayers.Bounds(-20037508, -20037508, 20037508, 20037508.34),
      maxResolution: 156543.0339,
      units: 'm',
  6. Add a layer with a cql filter for points located outside a 1,000-kilometre circular buffer from Rome:

    new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("Far away places",
      "http://localhost/geoserver/wms",{
        layers: "NaturalEarth:populatedplaceswm",
        format: "image/png",
        transparent: true,
        cql_filter: "BEYOND(geom,POINT(1389413 5145697),1000000,meters)",
        sld_body: sld,
  7. Add a layer with a cql filter for points located inside a 1,000-kilometre circular buffer from Rome:

    new OpenLayers.Layer.WMS("Near places",
      "http://localhost/geoserver/wms",{
        layers: "NaturalEarth:populatedplaceswm",
        format: "image/png",
        transparent: true,
        cql_filter: "DWITHIN(geom,POINT(1389413 5145697),1000000,meters)",
        sld_body: sld2,
  8. Save the file and point your browser to it. Your map will show a set of green points around Rome. As shown in the previous image, Rome is surrounded by red points.

How it works…

Using spatial operators in cql_filter is not really different than filtering other attributes. We used a map in a planar coordinate, in this case, the Web Mercator projection, because of an issue within GeoServer. Although you can define units that will be used to calculate distance in the BEYOND and DWITHIN operators, the interpretation depends on the data store (see http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GEOS-937 for a detailed discussion). In PostGIS, the distance is evaluated according to the default units for the native spatial reference system of the data.

Tip

A spatial reference system (SRS) is a coordinate-based local, regional, or global system used to locate geographical entities. SRS defines a specific map projection as well as transformations between different SRS.

We need to create a new table with points projected in a planar coordinate. Then, we create an OpenLayers map object and set it to EPSG:3857. When using a projected SRS, we also need to set the map extent, resolution, and units:

projection: "EPSG:3857",
maxExtent: new OpenLayers.Bounds(-20037508, -20037508, 20037508, 20037508.34),
maxResolution: 156543.0339,
units: 'm',

We then add two layers pointing to the same feature type, populatedplaceswm, and using two different spatial filters. The first one uses the BEYOND operator, passing it the coordinates of Rome expressed in meters, a 1000-kilometer distance, and the units:

cql_filter: "BEYOND(geom,POINT(1389413 5145697),1000000,meters)",

Note

Although the units are not evaluated when filtering features, the parameter is mandatory. Hence, you have to insert it, but you need to be aware of the native SRS of the data and calculate a proper value for the distance

To override the default rendering of features, we set sld_body for the request to the SLD created in the JavaScript code:

sld_body: sld,

To represent features inside the buffer, we create a similar layer, filtering features with the DWITHIN operator. The syntax is pretty similar to BEYOND; please ensure that you set the same point and distance to build the buffer area:

cql_filter: "DWITHIN(geom,POINT(1389413 5145697),1000000,meters)",

Then, we set a different sld_body value to represent features with a different symbol:

sld_body: sld2,
 

Creating a SQL view


You probably know how to create a SQL view. Using views lets you represent data in different ways, extracting and transforming the data and avoiding data duplication.

With RDBMS, you can store views inside the database. In this case, a view is just a feature type for GeoServer, just like for a table.

You can also use a different approach with GeoServer, storing the SQL code inside your GeoServer configuration. This way, SQL views allow the execution of a custom SQL query on each request to the layer. This avoids the need to create a database view for complex queries.

Note

We use PostGIS in this book. While it is one of the most powerful spatial databases available, not to mention that it is free to use, you may need to use other databases. GeoServer also supports Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL with extension modules. You can use the recipes in this book with any of them; you only need to be careful with the SQL code. Code inserted in this book uses the ST_* functions that may have different syntax or be unavailable in other databases than PostGIS.

How to do it…

  1. We will build a view that contains only European countries. Open your GeoServer web interface and switch to Layers:

  2. Select Add a new resource, and from the dropdown list, select the data store pointing to your RDBMS, PostGIS in our case. Instead of selecting a table from the list, select the Configure new SQL view… link:

  3. In the form, insert EuropeanCountries as View Name and the following code as the SQL statement:

    SELECT 
      ADMIN,
      ST_UNION(COUNTRIES_EXP.GEOM) AS GEOM
    FROM 
      (SELECT 
         ADMIN, 
         (ST_DUMP(GEOM)).geom as geom
       FROM 
         COUNTRIES 
       WHERE 
         REGION_UN = 'Europe') COUNTRIES_EXP 
    WHERE 
      ST_Intersects(COUNTRIES_EXP.GEOM, ST_GeomFromText('POLYGON((-11 37.40, -11 73.83, 27.28 73.83, 27.28 37.40, -11 37.40))',4326)) = TRUE 
    GROUP BY ADMIN
  4. Move to the bottom of the screen and select the Guess Geometry type and srid checkbox and click on Refresh. The 4326 EPSG code is properly detected, but you have to manually select MultiPolygon to avoid detecting the value of the polygon instead:

  5. Click on Save, and you will be brought to the publish layer form. Click on the button to calculate the native data extent and click on Publish. Move to Layer Preview and select the EuropeanCountries layer; your map should look like this one:

How it works…

Creating a SQL view in GeoServer is not different from creating one in an RDBMS. You just have to build proper SQL code to filter and transform the feature.

It is not mandatory that source tables for your view are already published in GeoServer. You only need to have a data store properly configured to an RDBMS; you can't use a SQL view against a shapefile or other file-based stores.

As you can see in the SQL code for this recipe, you can use any combination of the standard SQL and vendor extension. GeoServer does not evaluate the code, but it demands parsing and evaluation to the RDBMS.

You can use the aggregation and transformation function as we did. You need to return at least a proper geometrical field so that GeoServer can evaluate it and use it to configure a layer.

There's more…

The view created from GeoServer is not stored inside your RDBMS. This may sound odd if you're used to creating views in a database. Indeed, GeoServer views are a sort of virtual table. You can check this inside the data directory. Look for the workspace and find the featuretype definition, which is in the featuretype.xml file. You will find that your SQL query is just stored inside it:

  <metadata>
    <entry key="JDBC_VIRTUAL_TABLE">
      <virtualTable>
        <name>EuropeanCountries</name>
        <sql>SELECT 
  ADMIN,
  ST_UNION(COUNTRIES_EXP.GEOM) AS GEOM
FROM 
  (SELECT 
     ADMIN, 
     (ST_DUMP(GEOM)).geom as geom
   FROM 
     COUNTRIES 
   WHERE 
     REGION_UN = &apos;Europe&apos;) COUNTRIES_EXP 
WHERE 
  ST_Intersects(COUNTRIES_EXP.GEOM, ST_GeomFromText(&apos;POLYGON((-11 37.40, -11 73.83, 27.28 73.83, 27.28 37.40, -11 37.40))&apos;,4326)) = TRUE 
GROUP BY ADMIN</sql>
        <escapeSql>false</escapeSql>
        <geometry>
          <name>geom</name>
          <type>MultiPolygon</type>
          <srid>4326</srid>
        </geometry>
      </virtualTable>
    </entry>
  </metadata>
 

Creating a parametric view


A parametric SQL view is based on a SQL query containing the named parameters with values provided dynamically in WMS and WFS requests.

How to do it…

  1. We will now create a new view by extending the code of the previous step. What if you want to have a dynamic view that works for each continent? You need to start the same way as we did previously: select Add a new resource from the Layer menu.

  2. Select the data store pointing to PostGIS or your preferred RDBMS. Instead of selecting a table from the list, select the Configure new SQL view… link:

  3. In the form, insert ContinentView as View Name and the following code as the SQL statement:

    SELECT 
      ADMIN,
      GEOM
    FROM 
      COUNTRIES
    WHERE 
      CONTINENT = '%continent%'
  4. Go to the SQL view parameters section and click on the Guess parameters from SQL link. Insert Africa as the default value.

  5. At the bottom of the page, select the Guess Geometry type and srid checkbox and click on Refresh. The 4326 EPSG code is properly detected, but you have to manually select MultiPolygon instead of the detect value of Polygon.

  6. Click on Save, and you'll be taken to the publish the layer form. Click on the button to calculate the native data extent, and then click on Publish. Move to Layer Preview and select the ContinentView layer. Your map now looks like this one:

  7. The preview map shows you the result of filtering with default values. Add &viewparams=continent:Europe to your request URL and reload the map. You should now see a different map:

How it works…

A parametric view lets you define one or more filtering parameters at request time. In this recipe, instead of building five different views (one for each continent), we have a single view, and the calling app can define which continent is relevant in the request.

Building a parametric view is not different from a standard SQL view. You can start creating the code without any parameters to check that you have no syntax or logical errors.

Once you are done with the code, you can select which field should become a parameter. To let GeoServer recognize the parameters, you simply enclose them within % characters, as shown in the following code:

WHERE CONTINENT = '%continent%'

GeoServer recognizes the parameters and lets you set an optional default value. Please note that if you don't set a default value, you always need to set a value for parameters when sending a request to GeoServer.

At run time, you set values for each parameter, adding the viewparams option to your request. As per the value of the option, you insert a set of params-value couples.

 

Improving performance with pregeneralized features


The feature type may contain a lot of coordinates. Also, if it's not a really big data, the simple vector datasets we use in this recipe contain a large number of vertices:

gisdata=> select sum(ST_NPoints(geom)) from countries;
sum
--------
548604

When you're creating a small-scale map, that is, a continent view, it does not make sense to have the GeoServer process all this data to output a really simplified rendering of the shapes. You are just wasting CPU time and degrading the performance of your server.

Having a simplified version of your data for general representation would be more practical, but you also want to have a detailed version of the data when your map goes to middle or large scale.

The idea behind the pregeneralized features module is to combine more versions of a feature type so that users of GeoServer can choose the one that is the best for each scale, while the user continues to use it as if it was a single feature type.

Note

Pregeneralized features are supported by an extension module. If you want to use this feature, you need to download the optional module. Please note that any extension module will follow the version of GeoServer. Installation is quite easy. Download the archive from http://geoserver.org/release/stable/ and extract the two JAR files into the WEB-INF/lib directory of the GeoServer installation.

How to do it…

  1. Start creating three generalized versions of countries for use in this recipe. The following instructions work for PostGIS:

    gisdata=> create table countries_0 as select admin, geom from countries;
    gisdata=> CREATE INDEX countries_0_geom_gist ON countries_0 USING gist(geom);
    gisdata=> create table countries_01 as select admin, ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology(geom,0.01) as geom from countries;
    gisdata=> CREATE INDEX countries_01_geom_gist ON countries_01 USING gist(geom);
    gisdata=> create table countries_05 as select admin, ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology(geom,0.05) as geom from countries;
    gisdata=>CREATE INDEX countries_05_geom_gist ON countries_05 USING gist(geom);
    gisdata=>create table countries_1 as select admin, ST_SimplifyPreserveTopology(geom,0.1) as geom from countries;
    gisdata=>CREATE INDEX countries_1_geom_gist ON countries_1 USING gist(geom);
    
  2. Create a new XML file, insert the following code snippet, and save it as geninfo_postgis.xml:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <GeneralizationInfos version="1.0">
      <GeneralizationInfo dataSourceNameSpace="NaturalEarth" dataSourceName="PostGISLocal"  featureName="GeneralizedCountries" baseFeatureName="countries_0" geomPropertyName="geom">
        <Generalization dataSourceNameSpace="NaturalEarth" dataSourceName="PostGISLocal"  distance="1" featureName="countries_01" geomPropertyName="geom"/>
        <Generalization dataSourceNameSpace="NaturalEarth" dataSourceName="PostGISLocal"  distance="5" featureName="countries_05" geomPropertyName="geom"/>
        <Generalization dataSourceNameSpace="NaturalEarth" dataSourceName="PostGISLocal"  distance="10" featureName="countries_1" geomPropertyName="geom"/>
      </GeneralizationInfo>
    </GeneralizationInfos>
    
  3. Go to the data store section of the GeoServer web interface, click on Add new data store, and then select Generalizing data store:

  4. Input GeneralizedCountries as the name for the data store, and then point to the location of the geninfo_postgis.xml file. Change the org.geotools string to org.geoserver in the two textboxes and click on Save:

  5. You can now see the feature type you defined in the XML file and click on the Publish button. You are now done. Switch to the layer's preview to check whether GeoServer is properly visualizing the data.

How it works…

If you look at the layer preview, you will not see any difference from the countries' layers. You will observe a faster rendering; this is because GeoServer is indeed extracting geometries form the simplified table. Let's check what is happening behind the scenes.

Set the log detail in GeoServer to GEOTOOLS_DEVELOPER_LOGGING, and then open your GeoServer log with the tail command:

$: tail -f /opt/Tomcat7042/webapps/geoserver/data/logs/geoserver.log

Now open the preview for GeneralizedCountries. After the map is shown, you should see some rows that state GeoServer first evaluates the geometry distance from the map's scale. Select the table that is more appropriate to extract the features from:

INFO [org.geotools.data.gen] - Hint geometry distance: 0.5681250333785898
INFO [org.geotools.data.gen] - Hint geometry distance: 0.5681250333785898
INFO [org.geotools.data.gen] - Using generalizsation: PostGISLocal countries_1 geom 0.1

In the log, the actual query that is performed on the database is present, and you can check whether it is created on a simplified version of the countries. As you can see, it is indeed created on a simplified version of the countries. Actually, the version with a higher generalization degree, which contains the more simplified features, is used:

DEBUG [org.geotools.jdbc] - CREATE CONNECTION
DEBUG [org.geotools.jdbc] - SELECT encode(ST_AsBinary(ST_Force_2D("geom")),'base64') as "geom" FROM "public"."countries_1" WHERE  "geom" && ST_G
eomFromText('POLYGON ((-244.29375672340652 -121.77904978394649, -244.29375672340652 115.41315165161649, 244.29377198219652 115.41315165161649, 244.29377198219652 -121.7
7904978394649, -244.29375672340652 -121.77904978394649))', 4326)
 [org.geotools.jdbc] - CLOSE CONNECTION

From the database, you can check the total number of features in this table:

gisdata=> select sum(ST_NPoints(geom)) from countries_1;
  sum
-------
44085

Now, zoom in to your map and check what GeoServer writes in the log. When your map is centered on Europe, the map scale triggers GeoServer to use another table. If you inspect the log, you can indeed observe that now GeoServer is using the table countries_05:

INFO [org.geotools.data.gen] - Using generalizsation: PostGISLocal countries_05 geom 0.05

Check the database again; the total number of features is higher. However, you are using a fraction of them, as only a portion of the Earth is represented on the map, so you get finer detail without a slow rendering. This is attained using the following lines of code:

gisdata=> select sum(ST_NPoints(geom)) from countries_05;
  sum
-------
 66042

Continue to zoom in until you see in the log that GeoServer is using the original table, countries_0. You are now using the entire detailed geometries, but in a relatively small area:

DEBUG [org.geotools.jdbc] - SELECT encode(ST_AsBinary(ST_Force_2D("geom")),'base64') as "geom" FROM "public"."countries_0" WHERE  "geom" && ST_G
eomFromText('POLYGON ((6.016917772920612 4.379043245570911, 6.016917772920612 5.305575282428689, 7.925462806926788 5.305575282428689, 7.925462806926788 4.37904324557091
1, 6.016917772920612 4.379043245570911))', 4326)
About the Author
  • Stefano Iacovella

    Stefano Iacovella is a long-time GIS developer and consultant living in Rome, Italy. He also works as a GIS courses instructor, and he has a PhD. in Geology. Being a very curious person, he developed a deep knowledge of IT technologies, mainly focused on GIS software and related standards. Starting his career as an ESRI employee, he was exposed to and became confident with proprietary GIS software, mainly the ESRI suite of products. In the last 14 years, he has become more and more involved with Open Source software, also integrating it with proprietary software. He loves the Open Source approach and really trusts in the collaboration and sharing of knowledge. He strongly believes in the Open Source idea and constantly manages to spread it out, not limiting it to the GIS sector. He has been using GeoServer since release 1.5 by configuring, deploying, and hacking it on several projects. Other GFOSS projects he uses and likes are GDAL/OGR, PostGIS, QGIS, and OpenLayers. He is the author of the GeoServer Cookbook, which consists of a set of recipes to use GeoServer at an advanced level, by Packt, and he has also authored the first edition of this book. When not playing with maps and geometric shapes, he loves reading about science, mainly Physics and Maths, riding his bike, and having fun with his wife and two daughters, Alice and Luisa.

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Great examples for GeoServer.
GeoServer Cookbook
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